It sounded dreadful now. ‘No, it was only on the holiday. I’m usually perfectly sensible and cautious –’ She threw a glance in his direction to see if he believed her. ‘But when I found out there’d been a party, with gatecrashers and all sorts of hideous mess, I thought a week’s holiday was just too short and I wanted to extend it a little. Apparently the house was just like that Yellow Pages commercial.’ Thea stopped, wishing she hadn’t mentioned the Yellow Pages. ‘It does sound dreadfully irresponsible, now.’

‘Oh, I don’t know. If you’d just gone home and cleared up the mess I wouldn’t have found out where Rory was.’

‘Well, no, I suppose not. It was lucky Molly asked you about him.’

‘That wasn’t luck. Molly has a member of the family to ask about every subject. I’m the art man because of having been head of a college. When the head of the local college hadn’t heard of him, I was next in line. The luck was that I’d remembered Rory. At the time I felt it was unfair that his work was slated because of his behaviour. However appalling it was. He was the artist I’d been trying to track down for years.’

‘Well, I think he’s really good, too.’

Ben glanced at her as if them sharing an opinion was merely coincidence. ‘I think Lara’s going to have another puppy now.’

‘Just in the nick of time, eh, Lara? Shall I put the kettle on?’

‘No. I’m awash with tea. There’s a good girl, another little bitch. If these were pedigrees they’d be worth a lot of money.’

‘Perhaps we could invent a new breed. What would we call it?’ For a moment she struggled to combine the words ‘collie’ and ‘mastiff’ and failed. ‘Something entirely new, like Ponderosos or something. Lara seems quite ponderous.’

‘It’s not going to be easy finding homes for mongrels this size.’

‘I expect I’ll have one.’

‘Have you any idea of the responsibilities involved in having a dog? They’re not toys, you know.’

‘I do know that, but I only work part-time – in fact, I may not work at all after taking time off with hardly any notice. I could take care of a dog.’ Thea’s dormant maternal instincts had surfaced with all the force of a volcano.

Ben’s exasperation increased somewhat. ‘But what about six of them?’

‘Perhaps Molly could be persuaded, if she could tell her friends it’s some exotic, rare breed and terribly valuable.’

He shrugged. ‘Stranger things have happened.’ He turned his attention back to Lara. ‘Come on, old lady, we’re all getting tired.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘It’s nearly three in the morning.’